Despite the challenges, we were seeing free and democratic Iraq, we were
living the hard laboring moment we believe that every one of us has
duty towards our beloved country. By our hands, work, thoughts, sacrifice
we will build up the new Iraq.

For the animal shall not be measured by man. In a world older and more complex than ours they move finished and complete, gifted with extensions of the senses we have lost or never attained. They are not brethren, they are not underlings; they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendour and travail of the earth.

We thought you should know that as of today over 150 people, including 350.org co-founder Bill McKibben, have been arrested at the White House. (as of Aug 24 the arrest toll was 250)

Bill is just getting out of prison after spending 48 hours in a tiny cell -- and here in DC spirits are high and resolve is strengthening with each passing hour. For the past three days, large groups of Americans have joined a non-violent civil disobedience action at the White House. The goal is to send President Obama a simple message: “Stop the Keystone XL Tar Sands Pipeline.” These protests will continue over the next two weeks -- and what the activists in DC need more than anything is the knowledge that there is a massive global movement backing them up.

There are three ways that you can stand in solidarity from wherever you are:

3. Take part in Moving Planet -- a worldwide climate rally on September 24 -- and move beyond all fossil fuels in the loudest, most beautiful way possible.

You probably know that building the Keystone XL pipeline is a terrible idea. The oil it will carry from Canada’s tar sands will travel all the way from northern Alberta to the Gulf of Mexico. Think: oil spilling all over America's heartland. Think: way more CO2 all over the atmosphere, since the tar sands are among the most carbon-intensive of all the fossil fuels. With so many strikes against the Keystone pipeline, it’s understandable that folks are so fired up and willing to put their bodies on the line to stop it. 350.org isn’t organizing the action in DC, but there’s a separate website to find out more about the two weeks of daily sit-ins at the White House (today was just day #3).

When nominated for President in 2008, Barack Obama promised that his administration would ensure “the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal.” It’s not a protest I feel like I’ve been watching unfold here in DC -- but a big and beautiful reminder of that vision.

Media Take Opportunity To Capture A Piece of The Action at the White House Protest of Keystone XL (Photo Credit: Josh Lopez)

350.org is building a global grassroots movement to solve the climate crisis. Our online campaigns, grassroots organizing, and mass public actions are led from the bottom up by thousands of volunteer organizers in over 188 countries. You can join 350.org on Facebook by becoming a fan of our page at facebook.com/350org and follow us on twitter by visiting twitter.com/350. To join our list (maybe a friend forwarded you this e-mail) visit www.350.org/signup. To support our work, donate securely online at 350.org/donate.
What is 350? 350 is the number that leading scientists say is the safe upper limit for carbon dioxide in our atmosphere. Scientists measure carbon dioxide in "parts per million" (ppm), so 350ppm is the number humanity needs to get below as soon as possible to avoid runaway climate change. To get there, we need a different kind of PPM–a "people powered movement" that is made of people like you in every corner of the planet.
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We just watched our farm blow away. There was nothing else we could do. Five acres of cucumbers withered in the heat, unable to blossom. No blooms, no cukes, no money.

It was mid-September and hadn't rained much since June. In the garden, corn stalks crackled in the sparse wind, their kernels puckered, silks mere strands of dust. Peas dried on the vine. Grass lay flat on the ground. Buzzards patrolled the dry creek beds where cattle, weak from the drought, would go to die.

We hid in our houses like hermits, curtains drawn against the sun. When nothing grew there was nothing to do, and by noon it was too hot to do anything anyway. So we were surprised that day by a commotion at the door. More.........

Yeah, but they mostly spend their time trying to find food like anybody else. I wish you could see, for instance, the pathetic deer around here. The record-breaking Central Texas drought has killed off all their food (in summer deer normally survive on leaves and the green shoots found on twigs, but nothing has been green around here since April). They are skin and bones.

I don’t normally feed wild animals, but this year I’ve been chucking out commercial extruded deer food because I just can’t stand to see these bedraggled, skeletal does with this year’s fawns at their sides and last year’s yearlings still mooching. I’ve got a small herd rolling up to the house every evening, sticking me for 50 pounds a week.

I realize I’m probably just keeping them alive so some jagoff hunter can pick them off in the fall, but a bullet has got to be better than slow death by starvation. Hopefully there’s something nasty in the deer chow that’ll give the hunters diarrhea when they eat the venison.